Mechanical watches are often divided into two categories: those in which winding is performed manually, and those having an oscillating weight for automatic winding.
Although the watches in the second category are presented as being more technologically advanced, manual watches still have many advantages today: greater compactness, silent operation since there is no noise from bearings, no feeling of unbalance on the wrist, the movement is entirely visible from the back side of the case, and there is less wear on the barrel Moreover, some users are attached to the ritual of manually winding their watch.
Some users therefore have to make a sometimes difficult choice between the practical aspects of an automatic watch and the traditional and emotional advantages of manual winding. There is no watch on the market that allows users to choose between either one system or the other.
The oscillating weights of a self-winding mechanism also occupy a large volume inside the case, which can therefore contain only a limited number of complications. This is why watches with large complications are rarely self-winding watches.
WO Patent Application 2009/044027 A2 in the name of CELSIUS describes a mobile telephone, comprising a mechanical wind watch, wherein a mechanical winding device, which can be uncoupled in the closed position, spares the user from manual winding by making use of kinetic energy, in particular the opening of the main flag or a battery hatch, the sliding of a screen, access to a specific function by pivoting or sliding the watch, or even simply moving the mobile telephone, via a mechanism housed inside a hinge or in a slide-way. This telephone combined with a watch is in one-piece or hinged.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,577,679 A in the name of FRASER FRANK describes the disconnectable combination of the lighter wheel of a lighter with the winding mechanism of a watch carried by the lighter case, to which these mechanisms are connected.
CH Patent Application 705938 A1 in the name of ULYSSE NARDIN describes a timepiece comprising a planetary gear train for transferring energy from the input of the planetary gear train to the output of the planetary gear train, comprising a planetary train with two planet wheels, with an arm carrying one or two sun wheels each cooperating with a wheel or crown centred on the axis of rotation of the arm. This mechanism may also ensure the disengagement of the manual winding mechanism.
WO Patent Application 2014/166719 in the name of The Swatch Group RESEARCH & Ltd DEVELOPMENT describes a static device of winding of automatic watches, comprising a means of power supply or an electricity storage device, and a support comprising a support surface intended to receive in abutment the bottom of a watch. This device comprises means of generation of an electrostatic or/and magnetic field laid out in fixed position under the support surface and generating, on the level of an angular sector of an annular zone of emission, a magnetic or electrostatic field having a direction orthogonal to the support surface, and having a variable intensity or/and direction in function of the time. It describes also a watch comprising an automatic winder with an oscillating mass comprising a first ferromagnetic internal part and a peripheral second part in heavy metal, or a paramagnetic conducting disc coaxial with the oscillating mass.
CH Patent Application 706,352 A2 in the name of WATCHES BREGUET SA describes a watch comprising, in a tight case, a mobile component for driving a static winding mechanism of a static, free according to at least a degree of freedom and comprising at least a mobile receiving surface near an end surface of the case. This receiving surface comprises a magnetically permeable, or magnetic polar mass, for its driving by coupling under the effect of at least a magnetic field applied in the vicinity of this end surface and outside the case. The direction of this field is mobile in relation to the surface of end.
FR Patent Application 1,546,744 A in the name of MOUTSCHEN describes an automatic watch, which comprises a particular device of automatic winding, with removal of a traditional mechanical winder and of a traditional setting gear train. The adjustment of this watch, in particular of the index, is possible by magnetic influence through the case, like the driving of a winding reverser. This document quotes, without detailing it, a mechanic-magnetic winding, by a magnetic serrated roller external to the case, which requires a voluntary manual movement of the user for driving in rotation, this movement similar to that applied to a serrated roller of a lighter, which probably requires the removal of the watch. It is thus about only a manual winding mechanism which is different from the known systems.
WO Patent Application 02/44818 in the name of TAG HEUER describes a watch case comprising a middle, and a rotating bezel outside this middle. The rotating bezel comprises a magnetic portion, and a body inside the middle is laid out so as to be able to be driven by the magnetic field of the magnetic portion. This body comprises a ring concentric with the aforementioned rotating bezel and with a magnetic portion, so as to be able to be involved in rotation by the magnetic field of the rotating bezel during its rotation, and in which this body is of analogical type and can take an infinity of distinct positions according to the angular position of the rotating bezel. This device is not removable.